A blog about one man's journey through code… and some pictures of the Peak District

SQL Server quick insert test data

I recently came across a little known feature of SSMS that made me think that, for small amounts of data, it may be possible to create a procedure to insert test data into a table. Let’s start with the table:

Randomising a date is relatively easy, using a combination of the RAND() function and the DATEADD() functions, you can do this in a single line. However, randomising text is more complex. If you just want random strings of letters, then you could try something like this. However, if you want something more sensible, then you can use a lookup table: